VADODARA, Aug 18: After unauthorised constructions, it is transmission towers set up by mobile phone and pager companies in commercial and residential premises - allegedly without permission - that are giving the Vadodara Municipal Corporation sleepless nights. Some 20 towers, between 1.5 tonnes and 10 tonnes in weight, have come up on buildings at Panigate, Mandvi, Alkapuri, Raj Mahal Road, Karelibaug, Makarpura and in the Khanderao market area.Though it has issued some 16 notices to mobile, pager and radio trunking service companies for setting up unapproved towers, the VMC is acutely aware that the even the updated General Development Control Regulations - the last word on building permissions - is silent on such construction.On the other hand, a section of BJP and Congress councillors are questioning the safety factor as well. But the VMC is yet to determine whether the towers actually pose any danger to the buildings on which they stand.While Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Administration) H S Patel and other civic officials have no answers to how the towers could come up in the first place, the notices have not been followed up with any action either, ostensibly because the companies had the clearance of the Department of Telecommunication and the Airports Authority of India. But councillors say such certificates do not negate the need for a VMC nod. ``Any structure coming up in the city require VMC permission'', they reiterate.In view of this irrefutable logic, Patel says the VMC needs to formulate a separate policy on communication towers. They had already got in touch with their counterparts in Ahmedabad and Surat to know how they had tackled the issue, he adds. (According to sources, companies pay a tower rent to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.)Alongwith councillors like Rajendra Trivedi, Bhupendra Patel and Chandrakant Shrivastav, VMC's in-charge structural engineer Shailesh Mistry apprehends the towers may be hazardous as the buildings on which they are installed were not built to take that extra weight.Though buildings had a margin for extra load, the norm was not usually violated, Mistry explains, adding that this was why a survey was necessary to determine whether the towers were dangerous or not.
